Analysis of Safety Net Policies Reveals Striking Variations in the States; Leaders and Laggards Identified in Top Ten Lists National Center for Children in Poverty Unveils 50-State Policy Tracker

NEW YORK CITY-- Today, the National Center for Children in
Poverty (NCCP) launches the
50-State Policy
Tracker, a web tool for comparing work supports that are
critical to the economic security of working families. The tool
reveals striking variation among states, showing that state of
residence has a major impact on whether low-income working parents
succeed in making ends meet. To illustrate the vast policy
differences among the states, we highlight below the ten most
generous and least generous states providing child care subsidies,
a vitally important work support for low-income families.

The
Policy Tracker is a
free tool available online at
www.nccp.org. "We think the
Policy Tracker will be invaluable, especially now, given the state
of the economy and what seems to be an unrelenting assault on
federal safety net programs," said
Renée
Wilson-Simmons, DrPH, director of the National Center for
Children in Poverty. "A range of audiences — policy makers,
advocates, researchers, and the media — can use it to conduct
state comparisons of the kinds of programs that can make or break a
low-income family."

The
Policy Tracker
makes it easy to compare state policies across six programs: child
care subsidies, minimum wage, family and medical leave, income tax
policy, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child Care and
Development Tax Credit. Singly and in combination, these programs
make a big difference in helping working families meet their basic
budget needs.

"With the federal government mired in partisan gridlock and
critical social safety net programs under attack, we found notable
examples of state governments that are innovating and taking the
lead to strengthen economic security for working families," said
Curtis
Skinner, PhD, director of Family Economic Security at NCCP.
"But alongside the leaders, we found many laggards who are not
making work supports for low-income families a priority, despite
chronic federal dysfunction and a still-sluggish economy."

Skinner noted that these policy differences are not entirely
predictable by state per capita income or the red state-blue state
political divide. For example,
Alaska,
New Hampshire, and
Wyoming join
Connecticut and the
District of Columbia with
some of the most progressive child care subsidy policies, as noted
below. And
New York,
Nebraska, and
Ohio offer the most generous
state Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, while
Illinois,
New Jersey,
Texas, and 20 other states
offer no tax credit at all.

"Comparing states with the most progressive and least
progressive programs shows the yawning gulf in state initiatives to
help make work pay," writes Skinner in his
blog. Income eligibility limits for child care subsidies
provide a striking example of this variation (see NCCP's lists on
the next page). Where states set those limits reveals just how far
a state is willing to make good on its social compact with working
families. For many low-income families, child care is the single
largest work-related expense, and the prospect of losing subsidies
when income rises can act as a disincentive to accept a job
promotion or pay raise.

Some highlights gleaned from the
Policy Tracker:

A 50- state comparison by the
Policy Tracker reveals that
income eligibility limits for child care subsidies run the gamut
from approximately $54,000 for a family of three in
Alaska to about $23,000 for a
similar family in
Ohio. The most generous
states on this measure are highlighted below, alongside the least
generous:

CCDF Subsidies
Earnings Limit for a family of 3 (2012)

Led by Washington with a state minimum wage of $9.19 indexed to
inflation, 20 states set the minimum wage higher than the federal
rate of $7.25. The
Policy Tracker
makes it easy to compare all 50 states in one table.

Fifteen states, including
Alabama and
Illinois, continue to levy
state income taxes on families with poverty-level income. An
additional 15 states and the District of Columbia refund money to
these families through the state income tax system. In 2011, a poor
family of two adults and two children in
New York received an
additional $1,873 in credits while a similar family in
Alabama paid $548 in state
income taxes.

The
District of Columbia's Earned
Income Tax Credit gives a working family with two qualifying
children a credit of up to $2,094, and 25 states also offer EITCs
to assist low-wage workers. But the other half of the nation's
states offer no such tax assistance to strengthen family economic
security.

Part of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health,
the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation's
leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic
security, health, and well-being of America's low-income families
and children. Visit NCCP online at www.nccp.org. Like us on
Facebook or follow us on Twitter via &NCCPNews.